The Gorgon

Your blood hisses and roils with poison, which permeates your very flesh and even your saliva. Regular humans experience organ failure upon ingesting your bodily fluids, which can be fatal if enough is consumed. Meanwhile with humans born on the day of the Black Sun, it causes significant pain and debilitating cramps that make it difficult to engage in physical activities or perform actions requiring intense concentration for the next hour, at which point their bodies can shrug off the effects. To vampires, your blood tastes unique with a strong tingling sensation as it flows down their throats. It is for want of a better word, 'spicy'. For one hour after, vampires that ingest your bodily fluids experience tingling pain and a loss of some mental faculties, which manifests in brain fog and an overall vagueness to their words and actions. It is hard to concentrate, and the body feels more sluggish than before.

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Long Description: The eye is one of the most powerful symbols known to mankind. It can be an indicator of good, evil, protection, wisdom, knowledge, secrecy... mystery. It’s been said the eye is the window to the soul.

In Christianity, the Eye of God is depicted hovering over a tent which is symbolic of the Tabernacle – the temple of the faithful. The eye here represents the omnipresent spirit of God peering into the soul of the faithful – ever watchful over those who serve. In Egypt, we see the Eye of Horus (or the eye of Ra, and also referred to as a wedjat or a udjat). In this context, the eye is a symbol of protection and life. During his battle with Set, Horus’ eye was ripped out and torn to pieces. Thoth, however, was able to save the eye and restored it by invoking the magic of the falcon.

The spiritual boundaries of the eye and the gaze are no stranger to you. Indeed you have likely spent years trying to understand your "gift" - or your curse. When you first discovered your gift it was likely when you were very young. Perhaps you froze your parent in place over your swaddled babe form, and were not fed for hours, left soiled and wailing until they broke from the stupor or somebody else can and checked (no doubt presuming the parent unfit for the role). The first time would have been an accident, the second, third and fourth a coincidence - after that, and especially if someone saw it happen to multiple people as you aged, the benefit of the doubt waned, and you have certainly faced immense prejudice, hatred and fear. This is to say nothing of your poisonous blood. How that could have been discovered is a dark story all its own. One that any poisonsmith or assassin would be hard pressed to miss - for yours is a power almost tailored to their kind.

When you lock your gaze with someone, the moment for you has a tight, detailed quality. You can sense something between you jump up in the air - it grows taut, whipcord strong - and lock into place. You can lock it now, or release it. You've learned how. All the rich invisibles between your gaze and theirs, they are like physical tracks that your mind can follow - you can journey along them into them, and freeze them in place. You don't know if it's their soul you're attacking like some immense jungle cat locked around its prey, but it might be. You might even be able to halt astral projection if you could lock eyes with someone while they are in that spirit form.

Mechanics: Lock eyes with another individual and freeze them in place with complete paralysis; the call for this to activate is "Off-game: Freeze." They do not fall, but they cannot move any of their limbs, even fingers. They cannot speak, but they can blink and move their eyes. Before performing any actions against the target during this time (especially intimacy) you must ask for enthusiastic consent by again pausing play and saying "Off game" to enter negotiations. Loss of player agency can be a trigger to some. This effect lasts for one minute, or until you break eye contact. You can blink throughout the duration. Vampires with Strong level fortitude or more can break free after 15 seconds, but to do so feels incredibly painful as they force their locked limbs to break out of your trance. You can remind people this if they are unsure about the Gorgon's powers (we'd appreciate it!).

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Original Content and Game Design © Copyright 2021 Delia Drew

Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved. Our material is not official World of Darkness material. For more information please visit worldofdarkness.com.

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